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From midlandshurricanes.com (11/3): Midlands Hurricanes are delighted to announce that from March 2024, the club’s home fixtures will be played inside the main stadium arena at Alexander Stadium, starting with the first League One fixture against Rochdale Hornets on 17th March. For the last two years the club has been based at the Alexander Stadium campus, playing matches on the Community Pitch within the warmup infield. It has always been an aspiration of the club to move into the main stadium in the future and the club are delighted that this aspiration has come to fruition. Representatives of the club confirmed: “We look forward to calling Alexander Stadium our home venue for the foreseeable future." Moving into the main stadium is a fantastic boost for Rugby League in the Midlands and will allow the club to grow the game within the region. Speaking on the move, CEO Greg Wood said: “To call a stadium that hosted the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games our home venue shows the intent that the club has to grow. I thank our fans, the RFL and visiting clubs for their continued support, I am sure that they are as excited as we are about this announcement. In addition, we would like to thank the team at Alexander Stadium and Birmingham City Council for their efforts in making this happen." Dave Wagg, Head of Sport and Physical Activity at Birmingham City Council, said: "We are delighted that Midland Hurricanes are playing their 2024 season home fixtures at Alexander Stadium. While athletics will remain at the heart of the stadium ethos and operation, a multi-sport approach was set out as the legacy Vision Statement for the stadium following the success of the Commonwealth Games. Having the Hurricanes at Alexander Stadium supports the diversification of the site and opens up a new audience to rugby league, which is an underdeveloped sport in the Birmingham region. We hope their presence continues to attract new followers to the sport and the stadium, which in turn will lead to further opportunities for participation in a wide range of sports on offer at the site."

Hi Knight fans, Dons fan here Even though it makes you pick a seat when booking the tickets are unreserved seating so you sit wherever you want in the East Stand once you're in. Away fans traditionally sit at the North side of the East Stand, around block E9 and F10 (that's the left end of the pitch as you look at it) but can sit anywhere. You can buy a ticket on the day at the ticket office (not the turnstiles themselves) but my warning is that queues tend to be long for it. Our last game against they trialled a new car parking system, which the Rovers have continued to use, so it's probably safe to assume that will still be in place but awaiting the club to confirm. It was cashless and paid either via an app in advance or by scanning a QR code on the posts in the car park. Other thing that might have changed since last time you came, the bar at the back of the stand behind the glass is now members/hospitality so not general access (unless you pay a fiver to be a member on the day). The concourse bar will be open for the rest of us riff raff and is also cashless. The club normally post a match day guide a few days before so I'll keep an eye out and forward it onto to here and highlight anything out of the ordinary

Super League wanted a French team to replace PSG. They went looking for one, sensibly in the rugby league heartlands to not make the same mistake twice. Toulouse and UTC put their hands up and applied, we then chose UTC after a process. So a bit like the Windrush Generation, we invited some people over because we needed them for our own reasons at the time, and now they’ve contributed to our “society” for a while and have fully committed themselves to the objective, we’ve decided to treat them like instead we’re doing them a favour and they should just suck up whatever we deign to give them. Doesn’t sit right with me, I wouldn’t treat people or business partners like that.

Can you all just put like on this comment so that SKY know it's what we want (and also I will be top of the daily leaderboard for likes) And no funny b****rs putting 'sad face' emoji on this

The 2nd part of our documentary series is going to be available from 6pm on Wednesday evening - thought the first one was top class, so I can't wait to see more. It'll be available on YouTube, and I'll post a link here (unless anybody beats me to it)

Oh? You've never mentioned.

Why the automatic assumption that it's a bum steer if you draw Cats? York were league 1 when then they drew them in the Cup and @Gav Wilsonet al marketed the hell out of it, doubled the usual crowd, sold out of a special run of shirts and gave the french a hell of a scare along the way.

No I have just moaned on here Someone should do it for me

As a local, because it's the West Midlands. No one identifies with the West Midlands, they identify with their town, or to an extent which seems to surprise people who think counties have died, their county. Which unfortunately for this area means Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire, rather than the West Midlands County, which sort of exists officially, but no one identifies with at all. It doesn't even fit neatly by area into one or other of the 'old' counties - Birmingham contains bits of all three, everywhere else is only in one of them. So the quickest way to cut off a section of fanbase is to choose 'Warwickshire' or 'Birmingham' as names. Warwickshire will lose you Worcestershire and the Black Country (Staffs mostly, with some Worcs), Birmingham will lose you anything that isn't Birmingham. Which is an issue when you've got a legacy fanbase from Coventry. The bitterest rivalry is Worcestershire vs Warwickshire - which in cricket knocks a roses match into a cocked hat except no one from away from the midlands seems to know about it. It's so bitter that many people would rather not attend the away match - so as not to put money into whichever of Worcs or Warks they don't support. Hurricanes' link up with Warwickshire CCC was a regrettable lapse that does, at a visceral level, make it difficult for both me and some other Worcs CCC fans I know to support them. Unfortunately I'm serious, even though typing it out feels ridiculous. About the only other name which they could have tried I think is something like Three Counties Hurricanes, which would also have been a dog's breakfast. They're stuck with 'Midlands' because they've come to Birmingham from Coventry and didn't want to lose existing fans. Birmingham would arguably have been cleaner in terms of trying to start from scratch, but unfortunately, Birmingham v Coventry is another massive and sometimes bitter rivalry, in cricket, football, and RU.... IMO they were right to avoid it. It's one of the problems in trying to graft a new sport into an area that's a seething mess of pre-existing rivalries. There are a lot of people in the West Midlands, but it's not straightforward.

The latest score updates are excellent and a key part of Sky’s all game approach. Sport is only live once.

Maybe getting in touch with Sky is a better way of letting them know what you want. I'm not sure the TotalRL forum is the best way of getting their attention.

I’m not negative overall, honest. I think it’s been a relationship of mutual benefit, as all good ones are. Clearly it has been good for Catalans, but you can’t deny they’ve put their own shift in. Then on the flip side I think Super League has also benefitted, certainly more than it has from several other clubs who’ve participated in the league in the same time period… and nobody is asking other clubs to take on additional liabilities! That said, I am negative on retrospective attempts to renegotiate the terms of that relationship, which I think shows bad faith and not how I’d run any organisation, and it’s important to remember how this all started to make sure we frame today’s debate properly. I think a case can be made for franchise buy-ins, and a case can be made for charging “rent” to foreign teams who wish to join (whether I agree or not). I just don’t think a moral case can be made for moving the goalposts for an existing partner like this. Doesn’t pass my “smell test” is all.

Put an 8x10 card bottom right of the screen Bronco. I managed to watch all 3 live last Friday without the spoilers.

The chants are " Hurricanes" not "Midlands " Just like the species shouted "Skolars" not London, "Cru" not North Wales, "Thunder" not Newcastle. The "Choir" have embraced it with quite a few variations. So, you might not like it but the paying punters do

A bit of theatre at the Rams this evening. A play performed about male mental health by people who have suffered the stigma. Doors open 6.45pm On stage at 7.30pm Come join us... It could change your life or even save it

The Sportsman Channel has been showing CC games thus season, with excellent too quality streams.

As I pointed out last night on the Panthers Facebook group, there’s 2800 members of the group, if we all go and take a friend who’s never been before it’s a good start. Lets hope the club market the bejasus out of it in the short time before the game

CC is dead as the dodo get rid

To be fair to the decison-makers of 20+ years ago, clubs at the time were clearly fine with paying travel expenses. It was a known factor, hardly a surprise, and they will have costed it and then decided to proceed on that basis because they believed in the overall goals. Probably because the TV contract was better, but it was a decision nonetheless. Catalans have more than lived up to their side of the bargain in terms of on-field and commercial performance. The lack of a French TV deal is the league’s problem, not one club’s. If it was Catalans responsibility they would have written that into the initial participation agreement, with a deadline and contingencies. To now attempt to renege on it all is a bit “bad faith” in my book, and one of the issues I have with it. Just doesn’t sit right with me morally.

I disagree and think it is an abomination that ruins it for those that want to watch whole games without knowing the score It takes nothing away for me to be watching 'on delay'/not live In fact almost all my 'live' sport is on some sort of delayed start

I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave. I'm happy with it the way it is. I certainly don't want to see Sky being told that the Forum supports stopping the practice.

Was strange watching Fev win a game that went to golden point on Sunday to be honest. Yeah I had Wire in my second choice of teams with Hull Kr and Leigh. Nice little earner for the club, a chance to renew historical rivalries, very little chance of winning but I feel an affiliation to that game. I would have hated to get Hudds or Salford from a money perspective but would not have minded London at home because there would be a slight chance of an upset which could create an atmosphere.

Thoroughly enjoying it, I'm flicking between games when there's a lull in one of them, even sometimes having one "open" on the guide. I quite like the red zone programme on sky for the NRL which has all the games action at once, I'd love this kind of thing for the RL.

Incorrect. IMG stipulate that only fans in attendance are counted for gradings (though I suppose clubs could announce one thing publicly, and report another to IMG).

A bit of theatre at the Rams this evening. A play performed about male mental health by people who have suffered the stigma. Doors open 6.45pm On stage at 7.30pm Come join us... It could change your life or even save it

I think it's quite easy to see the potential benefits of expanding SL into France, not least competition attractiveness through strong clubs. Things like media deals, sponsor deals, player development, international competition etc. They are all really good arguments for it. The problem here, and I am absolutely repeating myself is that poor planning up front and literally having a strategy that involves no more than putting a team in SL means that many of those benefits have been largely unrecognised. Not having a plan for costs, or future growth in France, or player quotas for development, or an international strategy that aligns, or a commercial arm that delivers in Europe and not just the North of England is negligent. I think they just thought sticking a team in was the end game, when in reality it was the start. None of the above benefits will just happen.

They can be called whatever they like.

When you beat Barrow I thought we had no chance and you'd walk the league , but the momentum has switched. You've had two heavy defeats to good teams and we had a terrific second half against Batley and outplayed Whitehaven twice so really looking forward to it. We need to start better, improve goal line defence and have Sammut keeping his wild passes to a minimum.

Why G at the MO leopards will be missing Briscoe Ipape Asiata and Lam so if we dig in like we did on Sunday and with the possibility of bringing in Massey Minikin Turner and Yei I think we got a good chance of beating them

It's far more than that! I don't know of any better arena in SL never mind L1.

We all know that there were some problems with suppliers and players getting paid on time before SBW...I know you know this for a fact Harry since you talked to some of the actual players involved about what was going on (nudge, nudge, wink, wink; we both know that Harry). Some of the suppliers were on this very forum complaining about not being paid properly (I poo pooed them at the time in defence of my club but it turns out they were correct, I apologize now). Then there was the problem with the players getting cheques before Xmas that one year between League 1 and Championship. Both of theses things fit perfectly in the narrative of Fighting Irish and his analysis. The comments Elstone made were well before the SBW signing as I recall. I think it was as Fighting Irish says; the management team was given a budget by Argyle and they mishandled parts of it from there. Once the SL thing became a forced reality and SL made it very clear they wanted nothing to do with Toronto...Covid hit....well then Argyle was forced to fish or cut bait.

In what way? From a money prespective Sheffield should do quite well out of it shouldnt they. Wigan had to be one of the plum ties for a championship team. I doub't they will get a crowd big enough to cover costs. Are Catalans a team that are going to interest people? At the moment reading views of other fans on FB I would say not. Me personally as pretty much a die hard fan for the last 40 years I'm feeling pretty meh over it. I want to watch games with a good atmosphere and Catalans are a team I don't see any rivalry with so its just a game that I really don't "get". I would rather have played someone like Fev just so it has that big game feel.

Considering how much rain we’ve had the pitch is in unbelievable condition. The 3 games we’ve had on it there was no mudbath like some of the super league matches. Looking forward to a good game and hopefully we continue our improvement and have good hard fought game.

I do find it odd that companies seem so keen to make us watch telly via apps. Fair enough if they get clogged schedules, use it as overflow, but no doubt they will have empty schedules on core channels while the app is broadcasting live games. It feels like digital people forcing it on us rather than genuine customer shifts. I'll live with it, but I must admit I don't get it. Sky have a platform to stream at the moment, our games are already on there (Sky Sports App). What worries me is that production values drop when they aren't on main channels. See also, BBC showing the Challenge Cup Rd 6 on IPlayer rather than a main channel.

Maybe they will change the name again. Midlands is a terrible name. Come on, Midlands! Up the Midlands! etc. Naff. Where is the Midlands anyway? Why not at least West Midlands Hurricanes? Naming it after a county offers some sort of identity and sense of belonging. Or, even better, Birmingham Hurricanes.

You could thin out the SL clubs' involvement in the round of 16 and QF by having them enter a round earlier. Avoidable was the wrong word to use on my part, I agree. I really meant that it is completely in our hands to design something that reduces the chances of having 12/16 SL clubs in the hat at this stage of the comp.

The Friday overlap annoys me. I can't choose which game I want to watch and when I do, you know I'll end up not picking the most exciting one! Came in late on Friday so chose to watch Leigh v Leeds after HT scores. Always fun watching Leeds get beat, right?... Should have watched the Saints/Salford game! First World problems!

hopefully the people of Batley also come out and watch us instead of asking every week how WE have got on in the local boozers

Nice gesture to name the bar after Keith

Good to hear. Have to say that in the not very much zero temperature for the Wigan “warm up” game, I was distinctly underwhelmed with pitch side standing, and rocking portaloo, and the closest hot chocolate I’ve had the accident to taste, whilst looking longingly at the empty stadium next door, which I hope would have much better facilities under the stand as well as pitch facing.

I’ll be there with my two grandkids. Expect a tough, close game. Hopefully an Oldham win to start our campaign.

Hmmm. Any links for this - as that would be genuinely shocking?

Great news. Incidentally a bowl of cold mashed potato was sexier than the Don Valley stadium!

On this point, I think Gausch will be angry, he'll see it for the myopic, selfish move that it is by clubs with limited track records of organic business growth. He'll also think it makes no strategic sense for the sport. But, precisely because he's bright, he knows that the best solution for him is to persuade the local government to stump up the funds for this and he has a far better chance of doing so if they can be made to believe it's a reasonable request. Gausch plays chess, whilst most UK club owners can only see the one move in front of them.

Wakey vs Bradford is sold out! When is the last time that happened in the Championship??

Nah, I have seen plenty of winter rugby in my lifetime and nostalgia is OK. But you would soon get sick of watching mud wrestling week after week.

Because you need no talent to be a fat truffle chasing Vichy.

Not a bad shout - bigger town than most of SL and growing quickly, plus a decent catchment area around it without a historically successful sports club. You've got Doncaster Rovers & whatever the RU team is called, but hardly big clubs. Nice stadium, supportive local council, amateur teams & decades of RL background in the area, not too far from the M62 heartland so you can persuade top players to move.

If York finish outside the playoffs this season after coming sixth last year despite only having one halfback and being rubbish for most of the season, then someone wants sacking. I’m saying 4th.

Yes RL take their cut and Leigh the overheads for staging the game.The rest is divided equally between Leigh and Fev.